AZUSA, Calif. -
Alex Henderson hit two home runs in a 15-2 win over La Verne in an elimination game on Saturday morning, and two more in the SCIAC finals against Pomona-Pitzer, but the Sagehens broke an 8-8 tie with two outs in the eighth inning and captured a 10-8 win to take the league championship at Cougar Stadium.
Pomona-Pitzer improves to 31-12 on the year with the win and earn's the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, while CMS slips to 31-13 and will await a possible at-large bid when the selections are announced on Monday.
Henderson homered in his first two at-bats against La Verne, putting CMS ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first, and then adding a two-run shot in the third to give the Stags a 5-2 lead.
Bryce Didrickson had put CMS in front with an RBI single to score Slade Spoor before scoring himself in front of Henderson's round-tripper.
The Stags didn't stop there, as
Carter Bennett had an RBI triple and came home on an RBI single from
Max Pemberton to make it 7-2 after three.
Henderson singled in the fourth and came home on a wild pitch, and
Blaise Heher and
Josh Jacobs tacked on RBI singles to make it 11-2.
Rider Gordon hit a solo homer in the fifth, and Pemberton (two-run shot) and Spoor (solo) added homers in the sixth to make the final 15-2.
Henderosn finished 3-for-4 with four RBI, and Pemberton was 2-for-3 with three RBI.
Bryant Smaaladen threw 2.2 innings of no-hit relief to get the win, while
Colin McNiven struck out four in two innings of work, and
Charlie Hynes threw a shutout seventh to finish it off.
The win allowed the Stags to stay on the field to play a second game of the day against Pomona-Pitzer, which won its first two SCIAC contests. The Sagehens needed to win just once to win the league title, while CMS had to win on Saturday to force a second game in the final round on Sunday.
Henderson got CMS started with a solo shot in the first, his third homer of the day, bur Pomona-Pitzer's Cooper Berry hit a grand slam in the second to put the Sagehens ahead 5-1. Henderson's second homer of the game, and fourth in six at-bats on the day, drew CMS back within 5-4 after a Didrickson RBI single.
In the fourth, with Pomona-Pitzer up 6-4, the Sagehens intentionally walked Henderson with two outs and nobody on, and Gordon followed with a two-run blast to knot it back up 6-6. Jacobs had an RBI single in the fifth to put CMS ahead 7-6, and after Pomona-Pitzer tied it,
Dillon Martin put the Stags up 8-7 with an RBI single in the sixth.
Will Parker tied it with a solo shot in the seventh, and the Sagehens took the lead on a two-run single from Sammy Lee in the eighth. CMS had the bases loaded in the eighth, when Eli Della Britta came in and got in an inning ending double play, and then struck out the side in the ninth to earn the save.
Henderson was 2-for-4 with three RBI to finish a day in which he was 5-for-8 with four homers and seven RBI. Didrcikson and Gordon each went 2-for-4 for the Stags as well, while
Jacob Young threw two innings of shutout relief, and
Brayden Thomas struck out two in a scoreless ninth.
CMS came into the day ranked No. 39 in the NCAA's rating percentage index (NPI) and added a win against No. 91 La Verne and a loss to No. 29 Pomona-Pitzer. A year ago, at-large teams in the top 40 qualified for the NCAA Tournament, and the Stags will hope for a similar fate on Monday when selections are announced. A bid would give CMS a chance to duplicate its success from a year ago, when it won the regionals to advance to its first-ever Super Regional.
